MASH ANOTHER DAY IN THE KOREAN WAR
by susan cousineau
Summary: The enemy burns down the orphanage and Hawkeye must take care of the orphans
Hawkeye awoke to the smell the stench of the sick in his cold leaky tent to the never ending sounds of ambulances and helicopters bringing in the injured and dying. It was winter and with nothing but a small pot bellied stove to keep the tent warm getting out of bed was dreadful enough.

As he stretched and reached for his boots he heard over the pa the announcement of more incoming wounded. Radar a good friend of Hawkeye and Trapper. One constant thing that they had was the never ending line of injured men needing surgery and facing possible death. It was a normal day to spend fourteen hours in surgery 'it is a miracle that anyone survives' Hawkeye thought to himself.

Their commanding officer Henry had gone to Tokyo for a conference and left Hawkeye in charge. Although the parties went full blast when there were no surgeries the camp still needed to be run and there were many responsibilities that Hawkeye didn't like to take lightly.

As he looked into the surgical tent Margaret the head nurse was busy getting her nurses ready for the surgery setting up the medicines the blood anything that would be needed needles surgical instruments. They had one generator that was not all that dependable and Hawkeye had seen times that he had to perform surgery by flashlight.

Some twelve hours later when surgery was finally finished and Hawkeye and Trapper finally got a chance to catch something to eat it was almost mechanical. The food was terrible cold coffee and melted ice cream, a treat that was sent via the red cross once a month. They usually referred to it as slop.

Hawkeye had just climbed into his cot and was closing his eyes when there was a knock on the tent door. He said come in and looked up to see Ling a good friend of his standing there with a very worried look on his face.

Trapper and Hawkeye sat up and waited for their friend to tell them the problem. Ling was the second hand person at the local orphanage and rarely came to the Mash 4077 for anything. They knew that something bad had happened.

Ling bowed and started to tell his story and dilema "We were outside of our home this morning doing some outside chores All were outside except for Mae Lee who was inside with the younger children when some men came. They said that word was said that we had hidden an enemy of theirs. They told us because we are nothing but an old man and woman with many children they would spare our lives, however, they burned down the orphanage. We lost everything but what we had on our back. They destroyed all our storage sheds with our food also. The children have but enough food for the next three days."

Hawkeye looked at Trapper and shook his head. This truly was a dilema that they were not sure they could fix. There were over thirty children living in the orphanage and the Mash unit hardly had enough food for them to survive on. What to do.

Trapper looked over at his friend and said "Don't worry we will see to it that you will be taken care of. We will be at your home later today."

After Ling had left Hawkeye looked up at Trapper in dismay "Are you kidding? What are we going to do? We don't have the money or the means to do all the help."

We must first speak to father Mulcahy, perhaps he can give us some ideas. They went directly over to the father's tent where he had just slipped into sleep himself. You see when people are injured and possibly dying the father would be up sometimes even longer than the doctors. He was a good man with a kind heart and listened intently as Hawkeye and Trapper told him of the orphan's dilema.

"I may be able to speak to the bishop about some emergency funds, however, that will take much longer than three days, it could take up to two weeks. I have an emergency fund of only ten dollars left because of the people who have been coming in with so many troubles. 'Oh this war it is costing so much human suffering." he said as he made the sign of the cross.

With payday not until that Friday getting money from people at the camp was going to be very difficult and these children needed a place to stay. It was winter, so what to do. Fortunately, their commanding officer was gone for a week and had left Hawkeye in charge of all people , but that would only be good for a few days. But, perhaps he could come up with a plan that would be a temporary fix.

Although the tents were crowded already, Hawkeye went to each tent and personally asked for people to double bunk and after a lot of work found room for all thirty-two people who would be coming to stay at their camp.

Father Mulcahy went with Hawkeye and they loaded up the children into the truck. They looked so cold and hungry he hoped that they wouldn't get sick. The children were wild eyed and so good 'how could another human do this to a child?' he wondered.

When they arrived the nurses took right to doing the motherly thing and each child was put in some warm clothes and asked to sit near a stove. The clothes didn't fit the children right but they were warm and dry. When they went to the mess tent for dinner you would have thought the food was made by a gourmet chef the way that they devoured it.

Now the children were safe for a short time, but what next? They could not stay at the 4077 forever, they needed a place to stay and food for their bellies. Hawkeye sat in the priest's tent while Trapper and Father Mulcahy paced "I have sent word of the urgent matter to the bishop and am awaiting his answer." he told them.

Hawkeye and Trapper had gone to each tent asking if anyone had any special skills that might assist the children and were pleased to find out that there were many different people with many different skills located in their camp.

For starters there were three carpenters who were more than willing to rebuild the modest home that had onced houses the orphans. They went directly over to the orphanage to find out what they could salvage from the ruins. Anything was better than nothing they said as they left in high hopes.

The cook was wonderful and with a little bit of ingenuity he was able to stretch the food even a little more. "Add a little water to the soup Martha company is coming" he told them with a smile.

Money was slim but not totally gone and by the end of the day Hawkeye had managed to collect over two hundred dollars from different soldiers, even the wounded donated any money that they had.

It was decided that Father Mulcahy and Ling would go into the nearest town and purchase what they could for the children. They would need building materials. Unfortunately when their friends had gone to the burned down orphanage there had not been much left to salvage. They did save some nails and a few boards though. The stone foundation was unhurt, so that was a start.

'Now what to do we need at least five hundred dollars more to give them the bare minimum to support the children even for a few short weeks' Hawkeye worried. He was throwing in some paper to keep the heat running in the old stove when he came accross an article. Friday night there was to be a horse race, they could run a betting game. Each person could bet on the horse of their choice and the winner would get fifty percent of the prize.

Hawkeye went into the radio room where he met with his good friend Radar. Corporal Radar was a good man only nineteen, but he had the wisdom of a much older man. "I will be happy to start making the announcements for you every half hour from now on until the day of the race. Is that good by you?"

Father Mulcahy and Ling came back late that night. Their luck had been fairly good as word of the fire at the orphanage had spread througout their community. They had enough wood and tools to at least get them a home.

The nesxt morning Radar asked for help with the set up of the new orphanage and Hawkeye was pleased to see almost everyone at camp had shown up. Ling graciously thanked everyone and took advantage of the ten best qualified people that he could pick up.

It was a good thing because just as they were leaving another battle had taken place and the wounded were comining in by the dozens again. It would be a long fourteen hour day again.

The children were wonderful and stayed quietly in the tent. Each child cleaned for the soldiers waited on them hand and foot and helped the cook out the best they could. The camp had never been that clean before.

As promised Radar had announced the race every half hour for three days and it was now the day of the big race. Everytime an ambulance came in a helicopter landed everytime anyone walked into the camp the people were hit up for money. Fortunately for all this was payday and people finally had some money.

Hawkeye and Trapper had been working all day and when finished headed to the orphanage. The building still needed alot of work but the roof and walls were up. The fireplace was setting and would be ready for use on Saturday. ' Now, for that money' Hawkeye worried to himself.

Henry would be back Monday morning and Margaret was worried what would happen if the commanding officer came back to find what was going on at the camp. He could be very understanding but... She was pleased that Frank was no longer around at the 4077 he would have made things very difficult for all involved.

It was time for the race and Hawkey and Trapper were busy along with Radar and Father Mulcahy counting the money. They needed one thousand dollars. "One two three five eight one thousand one thousand one hundred and eleven dollars and fifty-nine cents." We made it the Father nearly shouted in glea.

Because of the terrible conditions the bishop had been unable to send any money, however, he had managed to send them a three week supply of rice with some vegetables. That would help and with the five hundred and fifty plus dollars luck was on their side.

The race was exciting and with luck they were able to hear the race live over the loud speaker. The winner Lady Mary. There were sixteen winning tickets sold to her at a cost of 10 dollars a piece. That meant that the winners were to receive roughly 23.00 a piece after cost.

Hawkeye and Trapper everyone sat at the table waiting for the winner, none came. Not one person came to receive their money. Sam the cook came over and sat next to them "I want you to know that I have spoken to the winners of which I am one of them and we have decided to donate the winnings to the children. We want them to be fine throughout the whole winter." he told them.

They couldn't thank the winners enough, because of them there would be enough food and blankets wood for heat and even a wood stove, something the orphanage had never been able to afford before.

Saturday morning everyone went to town and purchased everything that the children could ever need clothes food, seeds wood and books for learning.

The rest of the weekend was spent setting everything up and Sunday afternoon the children moved back in. Everyone moved to their regular tents at the 4077 and went back to normal.

As promised Henry came back to camp Monday morning at around 9 am. When he came in Radar was sitting at his desk working on the camp schedule and everything looked almost to normal to him. "Anything happen while I was gone?" he asked Radar.

"Just the regular everyday things that are always happening at the Mash 4077 " Radar told him with a smile.


End file.
